Santa Fe Rail Trail to Eldorado

The last time I rode the Rail Trail from Santa Fe to Eldorado, (and that time, I continued on to Lamy), was about twenty-five years ago.  It was in terrible shape, with long stretches of sand, gullies cutting across the trail, and innumerable goatheads.  It took me about five hours to cover the fifteen or so miles from my house.  Much of that time was spent repairing flat tires.   I had planned to eat in Lamy, but when I arrived, I found the restaurant had closed.  I arrived back home hungry and tired, and I've avoided the Rail Trail ever since.

However, a few years ago, they started to improve the Rail Trail.  I had been on the part near Santa Fe, biking in from the Spur Trail to the Community College, but I was still not enthusiastic about bicycling all the way to Eldorado again.

This past weekend, my boss had a dinner party in Eldorado, and my wife and I, at my wife's urging, took the Rail Trail.  It has been infinitely improved.  It's still dirt, but it's been widened and packed down.  It's smoother than the paved roads I ride home on every day.  There are about six or seven dips in and out of arroyos, but most of the arroyo bottoms are not too sandy, and you can just let your bike plunge down one side and coast up the other.  Only on one did I go sliding sideways, on the return trip - I think I didn't have quite enough momentum going in.

On the whole, I think we traveled about 24 miles, there and back, on trail.  We were on the road for only about five blocks.  I spend so much time on the street, that I hadn't considered how nice three hours of bike riding could be, when you are far from any traffic.

You may also begin to notice that I like wearing my green shirt and my blue jeans on the weekend.  I suddenly became painfully aware that almost all my blog photos show me wearing the same thing.